Laying down during walks until treated

[kimbersmom]

I fear we have a "who's training who" situation here.

Stormy's always struggled a bit with impulse control and sometimes has meltdowns on walks. If she sees her golden retriever friends in the yard, spots a deer, sees little kids on bikes... those kinds of things cause her to pull super hard and bark, and when I try to physically remove her, she pancakes on the ground. Head, paws, belly, rump, all splayed on the ground. It rarely happens these days, but I always keep a dog biscuit in my pocket for those 'just in case' times. The dog biscuits have a higher value than kibble (which doesn't break through her meltdowns) but are not super coveted.

For whatever reason, starting last week, Stormy has equated pancaking=biscuit. Consequently, she has begun throwing herself on the ground multiple times during a walk. These are not meltdowns. If I so much as reach into the biscuit pocket, she immediately pops up and returns to perfect heel. I diagnose, "I know how the treat machine works, and I will work it!"

Things I've tried:

1. Physically pulling her. She simply lies there and lets herself be dragged. (I can only imagine what neighbors think.)
2. Turning my back on her and ignoring her. We've gone as long as 5 minutes. She is totally fine just hanging out, pancake style.
3. Dropping the leash and walking away from her. (Hey, that's what my mom did when toddler siblings threw tantrums in stores!). We're on a very quiet street but obviously this is not a great approach- and plus, she just got up, trotted closer to me, and then pancaked again.
4. Picking her up. She's just shy of 60 lbs. I can lift her back on to her feet but can't carry her.
5. Immediately returning home because, "if you can't behave, you don't get to have fun things." She doesn't seem to care.

I may have to dig up her training collar and keep her on a tight leash, but that's not an optimal walking environment for her or me.

Any other ideas?

[smartrock]

Oh Stormy, Why, oh why do you test us like this?

Lark often barks and pulls when she sees other dogs like how you describe Stormy. The advice I've gotten is to treat her right away to draw her attention to me rather than let her keep barking and pulling at the "other". I prefer to keep her walking but that can be kind of a circus when I have both dogs. So instead I have her sit, try to keep her attention on me, treat as needed. She'll usually do it but if we try to get her attention and get her to sit without a treat, no way, she's going to bark and pull. It has never gotten to the point that she automatically looks to me when we see another dog rather than going into hyper mode. And it's never gotten to the point that I always remember to bring a treat. Sometimes I can keep her walking, shortening up on the leash, walking a little faster, and using a treat as a lure until we're past the object of her attention and then she gets her treat. Fortunately she is super food motivated, much more than Henry is, so it doesn't have to be a magnificent treat. Also fortunately, Henry usually just walks along, he's interested in the other dog and may veer off in that direction but he'll keep going.

A woman I'd never seen was walking down the street yesterday did not have her golden on a leash and the dog just walked along beside her. I could see she had some sort of treat in her hand that kept the dog beside her, looking mainly from her to the treat. Some other people I've seen in our neighborhood do the same thing with their dogs, also goldens, but the dogs are on leashes, just nice loose leashes right beside their people, staring at treats. I can hear the humans murmuring words of encouragement to the dogs as this happens. And endure their pitying or disdainful looks when Lark is in Cujo mode!

It almost sounds like you need to back up to an earlier point in the process, not how to get Stormy off the ground, but how to avoid her getting down to begin with. So maybe get out the biscuit to get her attention as soon as you see the other thing you know she's going to bark at and keep it visible on you as you walk past. C'mon, Stormy, good girl, let's keep going, come on Baby. If she doesn't go down, you don't have to get her up. I have no other words of wisdom.

[kimbersmom]

It's funny how different their personalities can be! Kimber loved walks and was incredibly food-driven. Stormy likes food and thinks walks are...fine. LOL.

[SunDance]

Maybe bring Hope along? (Semi-kidding.)

No advice but a story. When I first got Hershey, I was training him to sit before crossing the street on our way to the park. Two crossings. After a while, he started randomly sitting on our walks. I mentioned this to the vet at a scheduled appointment and he agreed that it was unlikely that Hersh was hurting, so he had no advice. Lightbulb moment. Hershey thought I wanted him to sit sometimes (he obviously hadn't picked up on it being before a street crossing)....and, so....he sat. I stopped the sitting before crossing and he stopped the random sitting. No treats were involved.

With Sunnie and Danny, we did "wait" and hand signal and "let's cross" before crossing. Those dogs were smart enough to know that they weren't required to do anything without a command....and automatically waited before crossing the street after some time. I kept up with the "let's cross" for their entire lives. To this day, I think "let's cross" even when I'm by myself.

[lovemylabby]

The advice that was given us was to try to perceive her "locking into" these distractions before she does and then get her to focus her attention on "You".. tell her "look" and when she looks at you...say "Yes, good girl" and give her a treat. It does take some practice, but it will work... You just need to be aware of what's going on around you before she notices it.

[kimbersmom]

The advice that was given us was to try to perceive her "locking into" these distractions before she does and then get her to focus her attention on "You".. tell her "look" and when she looks at you...say "Yes, good girl" and give her a treat. It does take some practice, but it will work... You just need to be aware of what's going on around you before she notices it.

Oh, the meltdowns are much better. Now she just randomly flops when she wants a cookie.

[SunDance]

The advice that was given us was to try to perceive her "locking into" these distractions before she does and then get her to focus her attention on "You".. tell her "look" and when she looks at you...say "Yes, good girl" and give her a treat. It does take some practice, but it will work... You just need to be aware of what's going on around you before she notices it.

Dan was the first dog I used "look at me" with. It worked wonderfully for its intended purpose. But it also became a way for Dan to let ME know when he wanted to do something different. When we were walking, if he wanted to veer off the main path and go up an intersecting path, he'd stop...look at me....I'd say "OK"....and we'd change direction. If I didn't want to do that, I'd just say "let's keep going". I'm not sure how the command expanded in his mind, but it became another neat facet of our communication. But I guess it was the same kind of turnaround as Stormy's cookie challenge...I'd never considered that before. Smart dogs.